That the San Fernando Valley has been the backdrop for “E.T,” “Clueless” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” isn’t surprising. What’s less obvious is just how many TV shows and movies have used Valley locations – schools, intersections, liquor stores, apartment buildings, tree-lined streets, restaurants, alleyways – and made these places familiar around the world.

Covering as many of these spots in a three-hour tour is Jared Cowan’s quest. Cowan has had a fascination with filming locations since he was growing up on the East Coast. In Los Angeles, he’s written about filming locations for Los Angeles Magazine and LA Weekly and hosts a podcast on the topic, On Location with Jared Cowan, interviewing directors and location managers and often bringing them back to the movie locations they chose.

On Saturday, Cowan was leading the San Fernando Valley Film Tour, one of a handful of Valley-centric tours held in connection with the Valley Relics Museum and the website myvalleypass.com. The group of about a dozen people loaded onto a small bus in front of the Van Nuys museum and Cowan, wearing a “Karate Kid”-like headband, told them he’d be highlighting about 40 spots in total.

Jared Cowan, tour guide shows the inside of Cassell’s Music, where scenes from the movie Wayne’s World was filmed during San Fernando Valley Film Tour of famous film locations in San Fernando Valley on Saturday, April 06, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

Visitors enter Cassell’s Music, where scenes from the movie Wayne’s World was filmed during San Fernando Valley Film Tour of famous film locations in San Fernando Valley on Saturday, April 06, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

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Jay Nikolich, takes a photo of a building used as Cobra Kai Dojo in the movie The Karate Kid during San Fernando Valley Film Tour of famous film locations in San Fernando Valley on Saturday, April 06, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

Jared Cowan, right, tour guide shows White Oak Avenue a scene filmed in the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial during San Fernando Valley Film Tour of famous film locations in San Fernando Valley on Saturday, April 06, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

A view of a house used as Marty McFly’s house in the movie Back to the Future during San Fernando Valley Film Tour of famous film locations in San Fernando Valley on Saturday, April 06, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

A view of Roslyndale Avenue a scene filmed in the movie Back to the Future during San Fernando Valley Film Tour of famous film locations in San Fernando Valley on Saturday, April 06, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

Jared Cowan, right, tour guide shows Roslyndale Avenue a scene filmed in the movie Back to the Future during San Fernando Valley Film Tour of famous film locations in San Fernando Valley on Saturday, April 06, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

Jared Cowan, right, tour guide, shows the inside of Olympic Coffee Shop Family Restaurant where scenes from movies, Every Which Way but Loose, Memento, Over the Top, and TV shows NCIS and Heroes were filmed, during San Fernando Valley Film Tour of famous film locations in San Fernando Valley on Saturday, April 06, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

Visitors enter Olympic Coffee Shop Family Restaurant where scenes from movies, Every Which Way but Loose, Memento, Over the Top, and TV shows NCIS and Heroes were filmed, during San Fernando Valley Film Tour of famous film locations in San Fernando Valley on Saturday, April 06, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

Jared Cowan, takes a photo of Melanie Porges, right, and Lindsay Johnson on White Oak Avenue a scene filmed in the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial during San Fernando Valley Film Tour of famous film locations in San Fernando Valley on Saturday, April 06, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

Jared Cowan, right, tour guide shows a house used in the movie Wayne’s World during San Fernando Valley Film Tour of famous film locations in San Fernando Valley on Saturday, April 06, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

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“It’s really the location people who find all these spots that we consider iconic later on,” Cowan said. “That’s why people all over the world know it.”

As the tour weaved through Reseda, Chatsworth, Van Nuys and San Fernando, Cowan showed frames from films and TV shows on a TV screen at the front of the bus, so comparisons could be made by looking out the window.

In order to keep things fresh, Cowan changes the list of locations he includes on the tours. Saturday’s tour passed just a slice of the hundreds of filming locations in the Valley, both well-known and not so famous. He’s tracked down many spots on his own by studying the details in movie scenes like street signs, doorways, the shape of buildings and brickwork.

On White Oak Avenue in south Granada Hills, two friends in the group hopped out of the bus to get a photo on the street where Elliott and his friends biked as fast as they could to bring E.T. back to his spaceship. The facade of Van Nuys High School looks pretty much the same as it did in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

In Slymar is Olympic Coffee Shop, a place arrested in time. Owner Peter Kats says proudly that his coffee shop is the setting for about 20 productions a year. Among them have been the recent TV show “Sharp Objects,” set in a small Missouri town, not California. TV shows “NCIS Los Angeles” and “Heroes” have filmed at Olympic Coffee Shop, too. Kats points to the big windows, stained glass hanging lamps and swivel stools at the counter to explain why it’s a popular location.

“I don’t touch anything,” Kats said. He’s made hardly an alteration since buying the place 25 years ago. “It’s unique.”

How long the place will remain in its current state is unknown, Kats added, pointing to new development across the street.

Friends Lindsay Johnson and Melanie Porges said they often look for film locations and drive to them on their own. Seeing so many in a short space of time was a lot of fun.

“When we saw this tour, it was like, ‘That’s cool.’ Somebody is talking about (these locations) and can show us things that we didn’t even think to look at,” Porges said. Her favorite spot on the tour was Marty McFly’s (Michael J. Fox) house from “Back to the Future,” in Arleta.

“There are the few iconic places that some people know,” Cowan said. “Even some of the iconic places, like the South Seas building from the ‘Karate Kid,’ people know that it’s there, but they’ve never actually taken the time to go there. It’s just in their backyard. . . . So this gives even people who grew up in the Valley a chance to see places they’ve never seen.”

The next film tour is scheduled for June 8, and tickets are $45 online through myvalleypass.com. But if you want to take your own tour of Valley locations, here’s a short list to get you started:

Miss Donuts in Reseda is where Buck (Don Cheadle) gets splattered with blood in a robbery gone wrong. It’s at 18231 Sherman Way.

Nearby, at 18331 Sherman Way, is the Great Wall Chinese Restaurant, which has been the setting for many productions, including “Drive” and the awkward engagement party in “I Love You, Man.”

The South Seas apartment Daniel (Ralph Macchio) is none too happy about still stands, at 19223 Saticoy St. in Reseda.

The guitar store where Wayne lusts after a white Stratocaster is Cassell’s Music, at 901 N Maclay Ave. in San Fernando where the owner, Ed Intagliata, keeps the “NO STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN” sign posted on the wall.

Antonie Boessenkool is a freelancer who previously covered education and the Los Angeles Unified School District for the Los Angeles Daily News. She previously worked in Washington, D.C., covering finance and the defense industry, and in Bakersfield, covering city government. In Orange County, she wrote about arts, features and home decor.